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Vitamin E for Extra Protection

Wheat germ, almonds and sunflower seeds: Sure, they're crunchy and delicious, great on yogurt or hot cereal, but they also provide healthy amounts of yet another nutrient that may help protect against cancer--vitamin E.

Studies using experimental animals have consistently shown that vitamin E can help protect cells from damage that can lead to cancer. "Population studies have had mixed findings, however, probably because most people don't get enough vitamin E from foods to get much cancer protection," Dr. Quillin says. More recently, population studies that have also looked at long-term intake from vitamin E supplements have found protective effects.

In the Iowa Women's Health Study, for instance, researchers found that women who developed colon cancer consumed the smallest amounts of vitamin E, averaging less than 36 international units a day. Women who got almost twice that much of the vitamin--about 66 international units from supplements--had only one-third of the risk of developing this cancer compared with those with low intakes.

Another study, by researchers at the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland, found that people who said they regularly used vitamin Esupplements had half of the normal risk of oral cancer of people who did not take vitamin E supplements.

Studies that have looked at blood levels of vitamin Ehave also found evidence of protective effects. British researchers, for example, found that women who had the highest blood levels of vitamin Ehad only one-fifth of the risk of breast cancer compared with women who had the lowest blood levels of vitamin E.

"Like vitamin C, vitamin E has the ability to protect biological molecules from the kind of chemically induced damage that can lead to cancer," Dr. Frei says. "Because it is fat-soluble itself, vitamin E is particularly good at protecting fatty cell membranes from oxidative damage."

"Strong cell membranes may be particularly important in the colon, because the bacteria there produce a lot of free radicals, the unstable molecules believed to harm DNA and promote tumor growth," adds Roberd Bostick, M.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and co-investigator of the Iowa Women's Health Study.

Vitamin E may also stimulate and enhance the immune system so that it attacks budding cancer cells and inhibits the production of nitrosamines, Dr. Bostick says.

Based on its possible protective effects against some types of cancer, a growing number of researchers believe that vitamin Emay prove to be a key player in any cancer prevention plan. Many recommend 400 to 600 international units a day. Such large amounts are impossible to get through dietary sources alone. Even a diet that contains good sources, such as wheat germ and safflower oil, provides only about 30 to 40 international units of vitamin E a day. "Only supplements can provide these large amounts," Dr. Quillin notes.

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